{Mark Catlin's Blog} Agitate, Educate and Organise

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So MP’s Don’t Like The Idea Of Deselection??

I listened to Liz Kendall talk down to a Question-Time audience member last night saying how MP’s like her were voted in by their CLP’s then voted for (or not) by a wider electorate. What Kendall failed to mention is that during Blair and Brown’s tenure as Labour Leaders, the candidates the CLP’s were voting for were “approved” from “on high” by the Leaders office and not, in some cases, the preferred candidates of those same CLP’s. So is this the reason lots of these MP’s seem so ready to follow along when it comes to attacking Jeremy Corbyn? and why they are appearing to be so anti-democracy. These MP’s haven’t really had to try, they were handed their positions, I wonder how many CLP’s in the past voted for the “best of a bad approved bunch” after they “won” their chance to stand in a local election all they really had to do was stay “on message” and hey presto (if they won) they were MP’s. Now I’m not saying for one second some MP’s don’t work for their constituents (although over the summer I haven’t seen their constituent’s welfare considered over their own careers)
Now though the members have the chance to have more of a say in the running of the party, this is being fiercely fought against by a number of MP’s who, let’s face it have a lot to lose, but in people calling for some MP’s to be deselected, is it as bad as people in the media and PLP are making-out? it’s got nothing to do with anything as petty as “you disagree with us, get out” it’s been a while coming and quite frankly these MP’s have been attacking Corbyn and his supporters, members or not for months now, they’ve insulted, talked down to and tried every dirty trick in the book to get their own way, then cry foul when people say, “we’ve had enough of this, it’s about time we let the people decide whether you represent them or not”. The fact is people are starting to read between the soundbites and the opinions stated as hard facts and not liking what they find, so there it is these MP’s have to choose they either support democracy with all its flaws and foibles or they don’t, they cannot have it all ways, they can’t say they support democracy in one breath then in the next say but only on these terms, let’s see what the next few months bring but I for one hope that this change that’s happening continues and to be honest accelerates. No dystopian future please.